Mercedes Benz USA named a new CEO – Stephen Cannon

Daimler AG., on Thursday appointed Stephen Cannon (50) as the new president and CEO for Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) effective January 1, 2012.

Cannon replaces Ernst Lieb, who left the company in October, and he will report to Joachim Schmidt, executive vice president of sales & marketing for Mercedes-Benz Cars in Stuttgart, Germany.

Cannon is only the second American to become CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, according to a company spokeswoman. The first was Mike Jackson, who is now CEO of AutoNation Inc. He will lead the Montvale, New Jersey-based company’s more than 1,700 employees and 356 dealers throughout the United States.

In the interim, before returning to Mercedes-Benz here in the U.S., Cannon served as director of marketing for debis Financial Services (later Daimler Financial Services) and then held key positions in retail and e-business consultancies.

He also served as principal for The Richards Group.

In the United States, sales grew by 47.2% to 26,796 units. The brand delivered 219,491 vehicles (+11.8%) to customers in the U.S. during the last eleven months.